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questing gm
Master of Realmslore

Malaysia
1095 Posts

Posted - 12 May 2022 :  00:04:47  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On beljuril dragons

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1524390861945159682

May 11, 2022

@Irrevrykal

Greetings, learned sage. As far as I can tell, beljuril gems are only found in the Realms. Does that mean beljuril dragons (Dragon #265, the "Earthstokers" article) are also found on Toril?

@TheEdVerse

Yes. :}
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore

Malaysia
1095 Posts

Posted - 12 May 2022 :  03:35:36  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On Yan C Bin and Lissa'aere working together

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1524566912595804163

May 12, 2022

@kintsugikind1

Ed of the Greenwood, our scholars once again worry about evil alliances.

Yan C Bin and Lissa'aere both have Chan as their primary enemy--are they working together? If so, who calls the shots? How do they navigate the rivalry between Yan C Bin and Pazuzu?

@TheEdVerse

They aren't working together. Such an alliance would be VERY formidable. Yet the nature of the entities involved would make it unlikely. For which everyone else should be very thankful. ;}
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore

Malaysia
1095 Posts

Posted - 16 May 2022 :  07:37:55  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On Giant word for lightning

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1526055973651156993

May 16, 2022

@ComfrtablyNumb0

Hi @TheEdVerse, a humble Mage in a Realms game here with a question for some cool rp flavor. What's the Giant word for Lightning? My Wizard character recently learned the Simbul's Spell Matrix, and using that word as the activation would be awesome #128513; cheers & thanks in advance!

@TheEdVerse

In the Jotun tongue, lightning is uvarild (literally: "stormfire").

As opposed to literal fire in the sky (i.e. from fire magic, or a volcanic eruption), which is ildglang (literally "fireabove").
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore

Malaysia
1095 Posts

Posted - 17 May 2022 :  01:09:58  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On Common words for an asexual

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1526215588955267072
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1526239841041645572

May 16, 2022

@JRQMTM

Hey, asking as a newish DM to the Forgotten Realms, is there a word in the Common Trade Tongue for an asexual? I recall reading some terms for other sexualities on the Candlekeep Forums and the FR Wiki, but I wanted to know from you. Thanks in advance!

@TheEdVerse

Sure. As a trader using Common:

If I don’t know the gender of an individual, I’d speak of them a “one”

As in: “There were six or seven ones in Triboar that asked if I had any more swan-cauldrons to sell, so that’s six-seven sales for you if you get there before they source swan-cauldrons somewhere else.”

If I know an individual is a hermaphrodite: they’re a “two-thorn”

If I know an individual is utterly uninterested in sex: they’re a “no-thorn”

If I know an individual has been gelded/wounded and no longer has functioning genitalia: “thornless” or “shorn-thorn”

If I’m speaking of an non-gendered item (garment, tool, privy), it’s a “all-moon” item

(And none of these terms are considered pejorative.)

@AlexMcclay2000

Idk why, but “thornless” had me laughing so much.

Definitely sounds like an insult.

@TheEdVerse

The Common Tongue is rough and ready, a great leveller.

"You got yer kings and your high-nosed, painted nobles, and then you got's all the rest of us, covered with the sweat and dung of honest toil. Oh, and then there's the tax collectors, rank with the stink of DIShonest toil."
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore

Malaysia
1095 Posts

Posted - 19 May 2022 :  10:07:36  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On Madeiron Sunderstone knowing the identities of the Masked Lords

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1526942337494138880

May 18, 2022

@MarvelF89471649

Hi Ed. Would Madeiron Sunderstone have known the identities of any of the Masked Lords? Thanks!

@TheEdVerse

Oh, yes. "People watching" is Madeiron's hobby. Keeping track of potential threats is his duty/part of being Piergeiron's bodyguard. Any Masked Lord who speaks against the Open Lord's decrees, makes a disparaging comment about Piergeiron, or disagrees with him, Madeiron takes notice of. And sets the street urchin and other spies working for him to following and eavesdropping on. It seldom takes him long to identify who each Masked Lord is.
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore

Malaysia
1095 Posts

Posted - 20 May 2022 :  14:44:08  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On the original Moonshae

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1527280055696621568

May 19, 2022

@EzraGeekyMusing

I was wondering what the Original Moonshae Isles were like in your "Realms" compared to the Official ones by TSR via Grubb/Niles?

@TheEdVerse

My Moonshaes were like the Hebrides (or LeGuin's Earthsea): a maze of many inhabited rural islands, large and small, with shoals and straits between, fishing boats going out daily everywhere, and a few merchant ships (that also carried passengers) shuttling around.
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore

Malaysia
1095 Posts

Posted - 22 May 2022 :  07:29:06  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On the Dead Three in an original campaign

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1528217686072872961
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1528217686072872961

May 22, 2022

@forestsfailyou

The wikis I am reading say the dead three were originally adventurers who became gods. Where these originally characters in a campaign you ran at some point?

@TheEdVerse

No. Their mortal lives happened "in the past," before all live Realmsplay. :}

A lot of Realmslore is like this, because the Realms began as a world for my fantasy stories, a decade before D&D began.
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore

Malaysia
1095 Posts

Posted - 24 May 2022 :  15:18:01  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On Immersea street names and any other places not on published maps

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1528735778523729921
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1528835067979628546

May 23, 2022

@Artie_Pavlov

Putting up the interactive map of Immersea with pins. @TheEdVerse was the city your original? or created for Grubb/Novak novels? Also, do you happen to have street names and any other places not on published maps for Immersea? (haven't checked Volo's yet)

@TheEdVerse

The town of Immersea is part of my original Realms; I sent TSR a street map in the original turnover. I'll have to go check the published map versions after I get off my business call, to see which street names got published...

Okay, work done, took me a few minutes to update to the 1400s. Here we go...

Immersea is not and never has been a city, BTW. (Some local merchants like to speak of it as a city when they’re elsewhere, trading, to make it seem larger and more important than it is.)

Streets of Immersea:

Calantar’s Way: the main overland highway passing through Immersea. It winds down the eastern side of the map from near the NE corner to about a third of the way west from the SE corner of the map, along the map’s bottom edge.

Starwater Road: begins in a T-junction with Calantar’s Way in “The Hard” (hardpacked open dirt-and-gravel loading and unloading and boat and net storage area) just west of the docks, and runs west across the map and off it, heading into the King’s Forest.

Immer Lane: begins in a T-junction with Calantar’s Way (the second such junction N of the moot of Starwater Road and Calantar’s Way) and parallels the Starwater Road, forming the high street (main street) of Immersea as it does so, before it curves SW and crosses over the Starwater Road to climb Spring Hill in a spiral, and end at the source (rising, but long ago protected by the townsfolk by building a well-roof and stone cladding around it) of the Immer Stream.

Redstone Lane: begins in a T-junction with Calantar’s Way at the S edge of “built-up” Immersea, and runs between the twin lion-statue-roofed gatehouses NW to the gates of Redstone Castle, branching SW to access its yard; N to the pumphouse (nigh the Immer Stream); and W off that N branch to run past the granary, stables, and carriage shed.

Dathur’s Lane: begins in a T-junction with Calantar’s Way between Redstone Lane and the Immer Stream, and hooks NW to access a stables (former barn, W side on the banks of the stream) and three homes.

Dathur Mahalrym was a long-ago Purple Dragon officer who retired to Immersea and became a local builder; he lived in the largest of those three homes, and owned the barn, but died back in 1326 DR. There are still Mahalryms in Immersea, Yeoman Bridge, and along the Immer Shore (S shore of the Wyvernwater E of Immersea, along the Blister Trail) today.

Halahanthra’s Ride: begins in a T-junction with Calantar’s Way between the Starwater Road and Immer Lane, runs W and then curves N and then NW, crossing Immer Lane and running to a dead end at the Hethcanter farm (Imra Danae, who owned it in the 1300s DR and was the last Danae daughter, married Baerim Hethcanter; the current matriarch is Ildra Hethcanter, her great-granddaughter).

Halahanthra Dree was a local heroine of the late 1200s DR, a Purple Dragon officer who left the army with the blessing of the Crown after she refused the advances of several nobles in succession, who were angered and made life in service alongside them difficult. Always good with a sword and in the saddle, Halahanthra became a noted boar-hunter and an adventurer for hire, and often settled disputes in Immersea when folk didn’t want to involve the local lord or Purple Dragon garrison.

The Moonride: begins in a T-junction with Halahanthra’s Ride and runs west to a fork, the N leg becoming a dead-end at Lluth’s farm, and the W leg ending at what was the “mansion” of Embrar Narnuth (a local trader in the 1300s, who built a grand house that was oversized so he could store wares he’d imported but not yet sold; he called it a mansion but some locals called it “Embrar’s Barn”); after his death, it passed through several owners and got rebuilt into its current incarnation: the smithy and home of Ambaerand Tansreth (blacksmith who’s good enough to make sturdy but not decorative armor and swords).

It got its name for two Lluth sisters (who died of old age in the early 1300s) who were werehorses; on bright moonlit nights, to “get out the kinks and aches” of farming, they would take turns riding each other, at full gallop, along this street, which until then had been known merely as “the Back Lane.”

Bowshot Lane: easternmost of the two short cross-streets linking the Moonride with Immer Lane. Named for the activities of Ansurl Felthorn, an archer in the Purple Dragons back in the reign of King Duar dwelt in a now-vanished steading (cottage) at the N end of this lane, and often loosed shafts down it at a target on the side of his brother’s coach, parked at the S end outside Beldred Felthorn’s steading (also gone now; the area is much more built-up today). There are no Felthorns left in Immersea now, but there are plenty in Gladehap.

Lhantaravur’s Lane: westernmost of the two short cross-streets linking the Moonride with Immer Lane. Named for Inskeld Lhantaravur, a handsome and popular-with-the-ladies local alchemist who came from Turmish and lived in Immersea in the mid 1300s. At one point he had six lovers on the go at once, four local, a merchant’s wife in Arabel and a young noblewoman of Suzail; they all knew of each other and didn’t seem to mind. Lhantaravur was very good at painkilling quaffs and at perfumes, grew very wealthy and was kept busy supplying passing merchants who’d buy all of both he could make, and ended up hiring five adventuring bands full time to be his ingredient-gatherers all over Cormyr, the Dales, and upcountry Sembia. Local lore is that Lhantaravur died of overwork in the end, and that he was a friend of the Crown, visited by the Princess Alusair whenever she passed through Immersea.

Woodwove Lane: runs S off the Starwater Road at the W edge of built-up Immersea, right into a stand of trees. It’s where the locals cut wood and square and dress it into timbers (and “the leavings” into firewood), and is an ever-longer dead-end as woodcutting extends it deeper and deeper into the Launth Woods, formerly an arm of the King’s Forest.

The Woodwoves are the family of local woodcutters who own the N end of the Launth Woods, and live therein. Baerit and Chuntan are the head the family (surrounded by plenty of younger married nieces and nephews).

Ambrel Lane: runs E off Calantar’s Way between Dathur’s Lane and the Immer Stream, to end in a gravel coach-circle in front of the Immersea Stables (Korvon Dzulas died in the unmarried brothers who currently chaos of the Spellplague, and today the Stables is run by the Taskaunt family, who dwell in the grand home immediately S of the Lane. Ambrel Taskaunt was a self-made merchant from Suzail who retired to Immersea when rivals from Westgate hired toughs to take take his life one too many times, and he decided that horsebreeding and wagon-fleet owning were better ways to spend his time. It was the best decision he made; in Immersea, he made even more coin, and the Taskaunts became what they are today: a respected, wealthy leading local family who own property and small local businesses all over Cormyr, transport farm produce from eastern Cormyr to city buyers in Suzail, Marsember, and Daerlun, and are heavily involved in settling and developing westernmost Cormyr (along the High Road west of the Stormhorns).

Harbittur Lane: begins at the moot of Calantar’s Way and the Starwater Road, and runs SE across Immer Stream into the Cormaeril lands.

Harbittur was an early Cormaeril, an affable, strong, large man of legendary appetites and energy, who expanded his family martial and farming skills into becoming expert stonemasons and builders who owned several small local quarries. He cut and laid down the huge flagstones that underpave most of Immersea’s gravel or cobble streets, and most of these still survive more than a century after his death (of heartstop, while laughing over his sixteenth goblet of wine, at a family feast in his eighty-ninth year).

Harbittur Lane is the best-surfaced road in Immersea, and is lined with tall lamp-posts; when the Cormaerils are in the mood (or when fogs off the Wyvernwater are particularly bad and they’re expecting guests), they use pulleys to raise oil-lamp cages to the tops of these, to light the entire length of Harbittur Lane from its stone arch bridge over the Immer up the hill to the gates of High Towers.

Chulsanth’s Lane: sometimes locally called “Fishstink Street,” thanks to fishermen tossing rotting fishheads and fins along it as they leave the docks, this runs NE off Calantar’s Way, paralleling the banks of the Wyvernwater, to a dead-end at what used to be the town smithy, but is now Carra Chulsanth’s Carriageworks (still a smithy, but that’s only part of a larger wagonmaking shop). Carra Chulsanth hails from Marsember by way of Suzail, and is a lively-tongued, energetic, darkly beautiful middle-aged woman who makes closed coaches, open carriages, and goods and farm wagons for all, employing over forty local folk to do so.

She pays well and has become well-liked, though she had a rough beginning in local society because of her “I want my own way, and I’ll have it!” ambitions and fearless dominance of situations and disputes. Her conveyances are considered study and dependable and first-rate, and many are grateful to her for providing loaner vehicles and doing all-hours repairs when needs arise—and personally heading the crews that travel to do so. She’s a hands-on, “help me” boss, not a “sit and count coin with hands never dirtied by work” owner.

Map Notes: The Immer Trail and Blister Trail don’t appear on the Immersea map; they’re JUST off its edge, to the N and S respectively. The lanes running off Calantar’s Way in the NE corner of the map are nameless, as they’re the entrances to local farms and run nowhere else.

And there you have it. Enjoy, I hope!
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore

Malaysia
1095 Posts

Posted - 25 May 2022 :  10:21:29  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On duergar facial tattoos for a "calassabrak"

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1529117968927494145

May 24, 2022

@thekatastrophie

Well met Mr. Greenwood! Do you have any ideas for the appearance of the brand or tattoo that's placed upon a duergar when they become a "calassabrak?"

@TheEdVerse

Yes. :}

There are two facial tattoos (the intent is to prevent the duergar from covering them up and “passing for untainted”), usually placed high on the cheeks (under both eyes).

On the left cheek is the rune Alag, which means “Danger Right Here” (or “Trap”). It’s a vertical zig-zag lightning bolt joining a sphere at the top and an “X” at the bottom.

On the right cheek is the rune Calas, which means “To Be Shunned/Stay Back/Don’t Touch.” It’s an X with the lines on a 45-degree diagonal, and 4 dots equally spaced in the widest part of each arc (“pie wedge”) between the lines, as far out as the ends of the lines (so if you drew an invisible circle just touching all four ends of the X, it would also just touch the outer curve of each dot).

Some folk who are branding an outcast also put a clan or house mark on the belly or back, with a large diagonal stroke/baton through it (across it).
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore

Malaysia
1095 Posts

Posted - 29 May 2022 :  07:29:37  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On Amaunator's death from abandonment before Time of Troubles

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1530630214820175878

May 29, 2022

@_rockhound

When the Time of Troubles ended, Ao declared that from then on the gods would serve their worshippers – and wither and die without their belief. If that wasn't the case before then, how could Amaunator die of abandonment after the fall of Netheril?#9728;#65039;

Still curious about this #128516;#128070;

@TheEdVerse

That WAS the case before then.

It's ALWAYS been the case in the Realms.

That declaration by Ao was a mark of how little Ao knew and understood the Realms, and was an "blind men and the elephant" in-joke by the staff designers and writers of the time.
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore

Malaysia
1095 Posts

Posted - 29 May 2022 :  07:33:05  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On size of Waterdeep as of 5e

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1530630917156388866

@twitcher1979

I saw a question about the size of Waterdeep. Answers had different lengths x widths for the City of Splendors. What would you say was the size of Waterdeep as of 5e?

So far the sizes are ~3.8x1.5 miles & ~1.63x.643 miles. Thank you in advance.

@TheEdVerse

Waterdeep has grown in both population (density) and surface area covered, over the time of the published Realms (mid-1300s DR to kissing 1500 DR).

In the 5e era (1490s DR), Waterdeep is just under 4.5 miles north-south (using as boundaries the “ring” patrol path below/outside the outermost walls, which marks the limits of normal bowshot, not the limits of city patrols, which extend for a day’s ride in all dry directions), and just over 1.8 miles west (low tide mark outside the Seacaves) to east (the gravel-filled trench that we modern real-worlders might call a “French drain” on the eastern edge of the Meadows, that marks the area caravans cannot camp within, as it must be left free for foot and wagon traffic along the eastern edge of Undercliff).

The city’s walled-plus-eastern-cliffedge area is smaller, but don’t be misled by dimensions of Ahghairon’s Dragon Ward, which was crafted in an earlier era when the inhabited (as opposed to warehouse and caravan-camping area) of the Deep was much smaller, and was only intended to protect the major core area against aerial dragon flyover, breath weapon, and “stoop-pounce” attacks. The Ward has been renewed and tinkered with many times since, but its core “dome” shape can’t be extended or distorted markedly without sacrificing the stability of the entire magic.
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore

Malaysia
1095 Posts

Posted - 29 May 2022 :  07:38:23  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On Ilsevele and the Crownblade

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1530645179761401857

@CineastBenRowe

Hey @TheEdVerse - does Ilsevele still have the Crownblade?

@TheEdVerse

Your query doth offend against a NDA whose unfriendly fangs gape even now in our direction.
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore

Malaysia
1095 Posts

Posted - 29 May 2022 :  07:42:21  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On clans of Gracklstugh

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1530647475131977730

May 29, 2022

@thekatastrophie

If you had the time, would you happen to have a list of any major clans in Gracklstugh? For instance, I know clan Muzgardt makes Darklake Stout, are there any others of note?

@TheEdVerse

There are! Here you go:

Duergar clans of Gracklstugh (and in parentheses, their predominant professions):

Cahaldrho (ale brewers)
Dunnhaer (traditional crafters)
Ekhlond (“new”/experimental crafters/inventors)
Gallakh (beast rearers/tamers)
Haundavar (builders, stonemasons)
Immur (weaponsmiths)
Muzgardt (merchants)
Nauvrim (mercenaries)
Takhul (clergy, alchemy)
Thuldark (landlords, merchants)
Xardelvar (xarrorn)
Xundom (kavalrachni)
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore

Malaysia
1095 Posts

Posted - 31 May 2022 :  10:14:09  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On War Wizard authority in trials

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1531386617788878849
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1531639235366866947

May 31, 2022

@MarcoVolo9

Hi @TheEdVerse! Quick question about Cormyr: does a War Wizard sent to help settle a trial (with spells against lie) have prevalence in authority over the lord of the town?

@TheEdVerse

Yes. War Wizards (plural) would be sent to try such a lord, or a lord's family member, in some legal matter. HOWEVER, usual procedure is: lord conducts trial, War Wizards watch and step in if lord puts a foot wrong (lords know this process). Wise lords confer with WW.

@Yeovil_WH

Unless money change hands... I can see an interesting adventure hook there... A corrupt wizard bending trials to the biggest bidder

@TheEdVerse

Heh. War Wizards may be a-holes in some cases, but they're rarely corrupt. For long. Vangey and his successors watch them very closely for signs of corruption.

- Edited on 31/5/22 to add new tweet

Edited by - questing gm on 31 May 2022 15:58:49
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore

Malaysia
1095 Posts

Posted - 31 May 2022 :  16:01:21  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On Zhentarim knowing Elminster is a Chosen

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1531638663473397760

May 31, 2022

@ItalianKarsus

hello! Sudden bout of curiosity about Elminster- do most Zhentarim know he's a Chosen of Mystra and a thousand-year-old sage, or do they just think he's a suspiciously old Harper?

@TheEdVerse

Most Zhentarim know he's a Chosen and his age, because they get briefed properly. Zhentilar (soldiers) may not know, or may not believe the truth.
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore

Malaysia
1095 Posts

Posted - 04 Jun 2022 :  02:43:17  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On Elminster in 1373 DR

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1532747804946452484

Jun 3, 2022

@ilikeit_ruf

I'm updating the Elminster article at the @FRWiki and cannot find a reference for a claim.

The entry says in 1373 DR El helped a group unmask a Manshoon close Faceless One of the Night Masks.

The claim originated from the old Wikipedia entry about El..

But was sourced from an non-archived geocities website that can no longer be found.

The history is outlined in this Candlekeep thread: http://forum.candlekeep.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=12428

Can you share any insight as to what El was up to that year?

Thank you for making the Realms so fun to explore!

@TheEdVerse

Hi. That's from a Living Forgotten Realms module trilogy in which PCs were publicly making clear Orbakh's vampiric nature. (I didn't write it and have never read it.) El and the other Chosen already knew which clone and that it had become a vampire.

As for the Candlekeep discussion re. when El was in Hell, ELMINSTER IN HELL directly follows a scene in Troy Denning's Return of the Archwizards trilogy in which El tries to close a dimensional rift and gets sucked through it...into the Nine Hells (where my book begins in midair)
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore

Malaysia
1095 Posts

Posted - 07 Jun 2022 :  10:14:05  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On the genesis behind archliches

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1534006391085707264

Jun 7, 2022

@manbearian

Hi @TheEdVerse, i was wondering if you recalled the genesis behind Achliches (https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Archlich). Is this a term you coined?

Why are archliches "good"? Every other arch-X is just a stronger version of X, archdruid, archmage, archangel, archdevil.

@TheEdVerse

Yes, I coined "archlich" when I created them (for my Spelljammer supplement, Lost Ships) in response to a specific TSR staff request to create a good lich. They were supposed to be stronger than other liches (except for the oddly named demi-liches), but got nerfed.
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore

Malaysia
1095 Posts

Posted - 07 Jun 2022 :  10:20:49  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On Gromph meeting Elminster

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1534014287068467201

Jun 7, 2022

@sailorbii

Okay, so, maybe you can settle a question that me and my table have been trying to solve: have Elminster and Gromph Baenre ever met/interacted with each other? Given that they're respectively the strongest and third strongest wizards in FR, I mean.

@TheEdVerse

They are?

I have no idea what delusions Gromph may labor under, but Elminster knows of at least 20 mightier Realms mages than he is (though being a Chosen of Mystra does let him punch above his weight).
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore

Malaysia
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Posted - 08 Jun 2022 :  10:15:13  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On what being a "Weavemaster" actually means

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1534318038320877569

Jun 8, 2022

@Teh_Schwann

Greetings! I was wondering if you could expand on what being a "Weavemaster" actually means? As well, perhaps, as some examples of such folk other than El?

I've got this idea that such a person has such an intimate knowledge of the Weave that they can simply draw from the weave directly to create spell effects, no longer being forced into memorization of rote spells. In other words, if El wanted to cast a Fireball, he could just draw upon the weave and cause a Fireball to happen without the need to have memorized the Fireball spell earlier in the day. I wonder how close/far off I am in my assumption? :)

@TheEdVerse

From my Twitter replies of Mar 9, 2020:

Toril and all other worlds have multiple ways of accessing the energies of each world. And usually call the non-mechanical, non-engineering ways of accessing those energies "magic."

ONE of the ways on Toril is arcane magic (in D&D, wizard and sorcerer spells), and those who have the Gift (ability to wield arcane magic, which they call the Art) or study arcane magic (sages) refer to their way of accessing the energies as "the Weave." The Weave IS Mystra, the goddess of magic,and the Weave only extends throughout Realmspace (Toril and moons and the void/heavens around them). Other worlds have other ways of accessing energies, and may have their own equivalents of the Weave (not identical, and not governed by Mystra) or may not. Abeir likely has an equivalent, because it's the sister world of Toril, so similar and even sometimes (the Sunderings) contiguous with Toril, so that elements of the two worlds get swapped, but Weave-based spells don't work on Abeir; but innate spellcasting abilities do. I.e. the world energies are similar enough that magical effects can be near-duplicated, but not how they're brought about.

So in theory, a powerful archwizard from Toril would have to start all over learning how to work magic on Abeir, and if no developed system of working arcane magic exists, they may never hit upon how to create magical effects on Abeir, or may spend the rest of their lives experimenting and making very little headway.

In theory, all worlds MIGHT have their own Weaves (under various names) and their own gods of magic, or not. "Weavemasters" is a term I coined back in the 1990s for anyone who'd mastered the Weave (understanding its workings enough to not need the trappings of arcane magic like material, somatic, and verbal components), so they could work magic by silent act of will, rather than conventional casting.

Accomplished, experienced Weavemasters (like most of the Chosen of Mystra) can think of what they want to do, then mentally call on the Weave to do it. So they can work magic when tied up, gagged, and so on, when traditional casters would be rendered helpless. They control the Weave only so much as they call upon it, and so are not the same as a deity of magic who is the Weave (e.g. Mystra) or who governs the Weave.

So Mystra IS the Weave within Realmspace only, and is greater than a Weavemaster. Other worlds have other systems of magic, and even Toril has other systems of magic (divine magic, for example). Most other systems of magic use the Weave for convenience, but need not do so (travel from real-world place to real-world place is easier using the existing road system, but could be accomplished, in many cases, by not using the existing road system).
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist

USA
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Posted - 10 Jun 2022 :  23:44:15  Show Profile Send sleyvas a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by questing gm

On Amaunator's death from abandonment before Time of Troubles

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1530630214820175878

May 29, 2022

@_rockhound

When the Time of Troubles ended, Ao declared that from then on the gods would serve their worshippers – and wither and die without their belief. If that wasn't the case before then, how could Amaunator die of abandonment after the fall of Netheril?#9728;#65039;

Still curious about this #128516;#128070;

@TheEdVerse

That WAS the case before then.

It's ALWAYS been the case in the Realms.

That declaration by Ao was a mark of how little Ao knew and understood the Realms, and was an "blind men and the elephant" in-joke by the staff designers and writers of the time.




interesting.... so Ao doesn't know and understand the realms... almost like his power is overblown.

Alavairthae, may your skill prevail

Phillip aka Sleyvas
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
Moderator

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Posted - 11 Jun 2022 :  01:59:23  Show Profile Send Wooly Rupert a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas

quote:
Originally posted by questing gm

On Amaunator's death from abandonment before Time of Troubles

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1530630214820175878

May 29, 2022

@_rockhound

When the Time of Troubles ended, Ao declared that from then on the gods would serve their worshippers – and wither and die without their belief. If that wasn't the case before then, how could Amaunator die of abandonment after the fall of Netheril?#9728;#65039;

Still curious about this #128516;#128070;

@TheEdVerse

That WAS the case before then.

It's ALWAYS been the case in the Realms.

That declaration by Ao was a mark of how little Ao knew and understood the Realms, and was an "blind men and the elephant" in-joke by the staff designers and writers of the time.




interesting.... so Ao doesn't know and understand the realms... almost like his power is overblown.



Knowing and understanding something have nothing to do with power level. We've already seen his power level demonstrated.

A CEO doesn't need to understand what his workers do to be able to fire them.

Candlekeep Forums Moderator

Candlekeep - The Library of Forgotten Realms Lore
http://www.candlekeep.com
-- Candlekeep Forum Code of Conduct

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questing gm
Master of Realmslore

Malaysia
1095 Posts

Posted - 11 Jun 2022 :  02:14:10  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On a deep halfling community worshipping other deities

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1535288020655562757

Jun 10, 2022

@StormcrowHQ

Hi! @TheEdVerse, would a deep halfling community in the Underdark venerate and worship deities other than the Yondalla's Children? (I think it also makes sense that Urogalan would be their patron deity)

@TheEdVerse

Oh, yes, any isolated community could well end up worshipping deities tied to local events. And yes, Urogalan would fit as a patron deity. (Go wild!)
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore

Malaysia
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Posted - 14 Jun 2022 :  12:50:20  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On Magister's immunity to all mind magic and psionics

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1536471064515072000
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1536552891766407168

Jun 14, 2022

@ItalianKarsus

hello! Still reading through Secrets of the Magister. Quick question- Urboltar Highymhelver (531-537 DR) went insane from a magical mirror- yet the Magister is immune to all mind magic and psionics.

Does that protection postdate his incident, or was he protected then?

@TheEdVerse

That protection was added after Urboltar's fate and one other unfortunate occurrence to a later Magister (details? Nope, NDA, sorry). "Magister" has been a process, not an asolute, unchanging office.

@ItalianKarsus

I see! There is another Magister… Veldrin Daerivyn (762 - 797) who accidentally feebleminded himself. Does this immunity postdate him too, or is it bypassed if the Magister does it to themselves?

@TheEdVerse

Magisters can freely do things to themselves. That's the safety valve for the office, but also an Achilles heel.
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore

Malaysia
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Posted - 17 Jun 2022 :  15:16:44  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On Waterdeep's equivalent of Debrett’s or Burke’s

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1537457829300379650

Jun 16, 2022

@ericremyjordan

I was wondering @TheEdVerse if there is an equivalent book to Debrett or Burke's Peerage in Waterdeep?

Given the noble houses of Waterdeep, I figured someone in Waterdeep would publish a book like this.

<https://twitter.com/ericremyjordan/status/1537445816117231618/photo/1>
<https://twitter.com/ericremyjordan/status/1537445816117231618/photo/2>
<https://twitter.com/ericremyjordan/status/1537445816117231618/photo/3>

For context, “Burke's Peerage Limited is a British genealogical publisher founded in 1826 … began releasing books devoted to the ancestry and heraldry of the peerage, baronetage, knightage and landed gentry of the United Kingdom.”

@TheEdVerse

Waterdeep has never had full-on tomes like Debrett’s or Burke’s. (My oldest edition of Burke’s runs to six HEAVY thick hardcovers with tissue-thin paper.)

What it has is Starhaven’s Titled Vaeris, available either in per-family chapbooks or thicker letter-of-the-alphabet “double bound” chapbooks.

Both follow the same format: drawn family trees on the left-hand page of a spread, and short “you should know this” entries for the most important living members on the right-hand page. Anything that won’t fit is omitted, which is why discerning readers keep older editions (which have individuals in their pages that got “pushed out of” later editions by new progeny).

These short entries ALWAYS include all of the formal titles of every noble.

Alandolphor Starhaven disappeared in 1286 DR; he’s widely though to have been murdered by a furious noble whose titles he got wrong.

He had six daughters; their descendants pen annual new editions that every guild as well as every noble house keeps current copies of. Many clubs and snob merchants do, too, so they can properly address noble patrons.
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore

Malaysia
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Posted - 17 Jun 2022 :  15:21:04  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On a timeline detailing events 1385 DR to 1451 DR

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1537681264949460992
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1537686514859134977

@TheRealAM11

Hello, first of all Thank you for sharing with us your knowledge of the realms. It is always appreciated. I am working on a campaign with some friends and we were wondering if there was a timeline detailing events 1385 DR to 1451 DR. We searched and found nothing.

@TheEdVerse

There is no official timeline for those years. This was a deliberate (on the part of the publisher, Wizards of the Coast) "jump" or gap.

Stalwarts Brian Cortijo and Brian James bridged the gap in articles on Cormyr (tracing its rulers through the missing years).

@TheRealAM11

I figured might be the case. I appreciate you clarifying. Usually I'm able to find info @candlekeep but didn't really come up with much there so found it odd. Was trying to maybe find something on the Hardbuckler freeing itself from Zhent control as detailed back in Cloak&Dagger.

@TheEdVerse

We were asked not to write about events in the gap.

I believe the intent was to give DMs and adventure designers more freedom to have particular locales, families, factions, etc. be "the way they wanted them to be" for their campaign or adventure set after the jump.
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TheIriaeban
Master of Realmslore

USA
1289 Posts

Posted - 17 Jun 2022 :  15:48:10  Show Profile Send TheIriaeban a Private Message  Reply with Quote
There is a timeline out there for that period of time that was made by Brian R James, I believe (I don't have a "clean" copy of it anymore since I have already integrated it into my assembled timeline). I can't remember where I found it. It is not mentioned in the FRWiki. Here is an example:

1412: Year of the Dauntless Dwarves
Unknown: War erupts in the Moonshaes as High Lady Ordalf of Sarifal declares all non-fey settlers be driven from Gwynneth Isle BRJ
Unknown: High Queen Feithline Kendrick orders a flotilla of swift carracks to Kingsbay to succor Ffolk evacuating Gwynneth. BRJ
Unknown: Feithline’s armada, led by Admiral Felim Voel, are victorious over Amnian warships in the epic Sea Battle of Mog Goidel BRJ



"Iriaebor is a fine city. So what if you can have violence between merchant groups break out at any moment. Not every city can offer dinner AND a show."

My FR writeups - http://www.mediafire.com/folder/um3liz6tqsf5n/Documents
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist

USA
11686 Posts

Posted - 17 Jun 2022 :  17:19:16  Show Profile Send sleyvas a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert

quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas

quote:
Originally posted by questing gm

On Amaunator's death from abandonment before Time of Troubles

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1530630214820175878

May 29, 2022

@_rockhound

When the Time of Troubles ended, Ao declared that from then on the gods would serve their worshippers – and wither and die without their belief. If that wasn't the case before then, how could Amaunator die of abandonment after the fall of Netheril?#9728;#65039;

Still curious about this #128516;#128070;

@TheEdVerse

That WAS the case before then.

It's ALWAYS been the case in the Realms.

That declaration by Ao was a mark of how little Ao knew and understood the Realms, and was an "blind men and the elephant" in-joke by the staff designers and writers of the time.




interesting.... so Ao doesn't know and understand the realms... almost like his power is overblown.



Knowing and understanding something have nothing to do with power level. We've already seen his power level demonstrated.

A CEO doesn't need to understand what his workers do to be able to fire them.



And yet he had no understanding of why a previous god "died" ... and he's stating that "he just changed how the power dynamics work for gods"... so what exactly did he demonstrate versus what are we PERCEIVING he demonstratred based on his words. I mean, if he lied about just changing the rules for gods.... what else did he overblow about his own power level?

Alavairthae, may your skill prevail

Phillip aka Sleyvas
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Charles Phipps
Master of Realmslore

1419 Posts

Posted - 17 Jun 2022 :  17:27:37  Show Profile  Visit Charles Phipps's Homepage Send Charles Phipps a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Congratulations to Ed on his Hall of Fame induction!

My Blog: http://unitedfederationofcharles.blogspot.com/
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
Moderator

USA
36779 Posts

Posted - 18 Jun 2022 :  02:57:54  Show Profile Send Wooly Rupert a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas

quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert

quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas

quote:
Originally posted by questing gm

On Amaunator's death from abandonment before Time of Troubles

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1530630214820175878

May 29, 2022

@_rockhound

When the Time of Troubles ended, Ao declared that from then on the gods would serve their worshippers – and wither and die without their belief. If that wasn't the case before then, how could Amaunator die of abandonment after the fall of Netheril?#9728;#65039;

Still curious about this #128516;#128070;

@TheEdVerse

That WAS the case before then.

It's ALWAYS been the case in the Realms.

That declaration by Ao was a mark of how little Ao knew and understood the Realms, and was an "blind men and the elephant" in-joke by the staff designers and writers of the time.




interesting.... so Ao doesn't know and understand the realms... almost like his power is overblown.



Knowing and understanding something have nothing to do with power level. We've already seen his power level demonstrated.

A CEO doesn't need to understand what his workers do to be able to fire them.



And yet he had no understanding of why a previous god "died" ... and he's stating that "he just changed how the power dynamics work for gods"... so what exactly did he demonstrate versus what are we PERCEIVING he demonstratred based on his words. I mean, if he lied about just changing the rules for gods.... what else did he overblow about his own power level?



Again, he's demonstrated his power level. I don't understand this insistence that he's not all that powerful when we have seen that he is.

Candlekeep Forums Moderator

Candlekeep - The Library of Forgotten Realms Lore
http://www.candlekeep.com
-- Candlekeep Forum Code of Conduct

I am the Giant Space Hamster of Ill Omen!
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore

Malaysia
1095 Posts

Posted - 18 Jun 2022 :  10:17:45  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On emptying Waterdeep's sewers into the sea

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1538000727569616896
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1538001185126223872
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1538001549661593601

Jun 18, 2022

@ShepheardDavid

Got a question.

How do the people of Waterdeep have sewers that empty into the sea without filling up Undermountain with poop?

Does Halister come up to fix leaky sewers? Was he driven mad from poop floods constantly interrupting his research?

@TheEdVerse

This question comes up and gets answered often. ;} There are powerful spells (part of the Wards) that scour out the harbour constantly, carrying wastes far out to sea, into the fast currents that scatter it, preventing algae blooms (and the merfolk who live in the harbour keep watch over the waste flows, and drag solid items, corpses, and other "interesting" things in the flow aside for cleanup side-dumping (outside the harbour breakwaters) and for inspection.

I did work all of this out before D&D came along, but TSR's Code of Conduct prevented frank discussion of poop, and editorial decisions always put more adventure first and "boring" public works details a distant second (and so, edited out before printing).
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